Friday, February 25, 2011

View the tutorial on how to use Google Forms to update events/announcements in a Google Calendar while sharing reminders automatically to Facebook and Twitter Accounts. Something to think about as we envision updates to our library web presence:

Librarian in Black is outraged over recent developments with ebook aggregators:

"Consumer market eBook vendors like Barnes & Noble and Amazon don’t let publishers get away with the amount of nonsense that we get stuck with through library eBook vendors. I fault the publishers for not realizing what a huge mistake they are making by not realizing that new formats are opportunities–not threats to be quashed. I fault the library eBook vendors for not standing firm and saying “no” to asinine demands. And I fault the library profession for, to date, not standing up for the rights of our users. Our job is to fight for the user, and we have done a poor job of doing that during the digital content surge."

Read the entire post responding to publisher HarperCollins, and their demanded limit is 26 lifetime uses per copy:

Monday, February 21, 2011

The uprising in Madison is symptomatic of a simmering rage among the nation's teachers.--Diane RavitchRead Ravitch's opinions on the Madison Wisconsin protests. Ravitch basically thinks thatit is not just about unions trying to protect their members' hard-won rights.... It is about teachers who are fed up with attacks on their profession. CNN ReportIn a recent SLATE post, Egyptian solidarity with the Wisconsin protest puts a real "one world" feel on this.

Egyptians Order Pizza for Wisconsin Protesters:

"In an act of intercontinental solidarity, an Egyptian has ordered a pizza for Wisconsin protesters, reports Politico. The call from Africa is just one of many streaming into the Madison, Wisc., pizza parlor Ian's from all over the world. So far, people from 12 countries and 38 states have rung up looking to help get free pizza to the Wisconsin protesters clustered in the Capitol. On Saturday, Ian's distributed more than 1,000 free slices and sent 300 pizzas to the Capitol."

Without social media this would never happen. There is strength in numbers. However, the unions have a definite public relations problem. Read

Sunday, February 20, 2011

These QR codes are getting really big and I think we can have fun in the library with them because many of our students/staff have smart phones. We can partner students up for a library scavenger hunt during orientation!

Here are the ideas of Barbara Schroeder, Clinical Associate Professor with the Department of Educational Technology at Boise State University:

I love the interactivity piece...sending people to further information. To keep students awake during our own presentations in the library we can even put QR codes into our LibGuides and they can scan them when they are projected on the screen. I did that with my recent PREZI presentation and participants could get the direct URL for the PREZI sent to their phones.

So easy to do: just enter a URL into a QR code generator (many on the web) and then embed the image on your blog, web page, or simply copy & paste it into a word doc. The mobile phone user just needs a bar code scanner app on their phone.

"As of February 2011, YouTube has 490 million unique users worldwide per month, who rack up an estimated 92 billion page views each month. We spend around 2.9 billion hours on YouTube in a month — over 325,000 years. And those stats are just for the main YouTube website — they don’t incorporate embedded videos or video watched on mobile devices."

Social media statistics are equally impressive:

YouTube reports: "there are more than 400 tweets per minute containing a YouTube link. Meanwhile, over on Facebook over 150 years worth of YouTube videos are watched every single day."

Not surprising, 20-to-35-year-old bloggers embed most of the videos (57%), followed by teenagers (20%) and bloggers over 35 (20%).” See ReadWrite Web.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Digital Media: New Learners of the 21st CenturyOn-Air | Sunday, February 13, 10:30pm [note: Our local stations may not carry it, but watch the video HERE after 2/13/2011]Grade Range: 6-8, 9-12, Educators

While technology isn’t yet pervasive in every classroom, kids interact with digital media constantly, and more educators are trying to meet students where they are to incorporate digital learning into traditional lessons.http://www.pbs.org/teachers/digitallearners/

Connect Your Students with True Originals for Black History MonthThis season PBS celebrates True Originals — innovators, artists, scientists, political leaders and ordinary citizens who dared to advance, challenge, improve, invent, and explore. In honor and celebration of Black History Month, PBS presents new and encore programs continuing throughout the spring season.

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Recently read on Twitter shared by Buffy Hamilton: Access two Gmail accounts at once in the same browser!

I am now rushing over to my Google Account (google.com/accounts) so that I can see and use multiple Google Accounts in the same browser. It is truly annoying to have to sign in and out to share things across the web. From the Official Gmail Blog:

Simply click the link next to "Multiple sign-in."After you sign into your first account, you can sign in with up to two additional accounts from the new accounts menu in the upper right hand corner of Gmail, then easily toggle back and forth between them. You can even open multiple Gmail tabs — one for each of your accounts."

This is currently available only for desktop browsers and not all Google services support multiple account sign in yet.

Saturday, February 05, 2011

View to the video to see what's going on at Glenbrook North High School. The Idea Room reminds me of my visit to the Google offices in downtown Chicago. Love the wall sized white board. Shouldn't all of our learning spaces be like this?

Just think about learners, not teacher, not students....just learners.

See also resources from our New Trier presenters on VoiceThread at the ICE Conference in St. Charles later this month. ICE Conference 2010: A Learning OdysseyThursday, February 25, 2010Half-Day Workshop 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Presenters: Suzy Tauber and MaryAnn Apple, New Trier High SchoolWhat is VoiceThread? In simple terms, it is an easily accessible Web 2.0 online program that can be used with any grade level or in any class to create collaborative presentations,digital stories, student portfolios and more. Participants will view exemplary projects,explore the program, and create a VoiceThread to use with their students.
They have developed a wonderful wiki of resources.

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Isaksson used the mindmap tool Mindomo. This tool could also be used for organizing a presentation or as a brainstorming tool with students. The free version requires setting up an account and is

Limited to:

3 maps

Basic import and export

Most of the mindmap tools seem to operate on a fee schedule for extensive use. There is a video tutorial but you have to sign in to view it. I also like that the website gives many good examples of these mindmaps and that they have embed codes. Again, to get the embed codes you need an account.

For those of you who have read Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, there is a wonderful mindmap for all the concepts created by Anthony Johnson. I suppose you could do a book talk from the mindmap! See below: